Toomey and Romney alliance?

Colby ItkowitzCall Washington Bureau

To a Pennsylvania political reporter watching the CNN debate last night there were moments that sounded like Mitt Romney was angling for a Pat Toomey endorsement, or at least to get in the Pennsylvania Republican's good graces.

And it appears Toomey heard it too.

Toomey has said he is not endorsing in the Republican presidential primary, but he did the next best thing Thursday morning. A tax policy wonk, Toomey took to social media and endorsed Romney's tax reform plan while not so subtlety jabbing Rick Santorum.

"@RickSantorum for Specter: wrong but ancient history. More importantly: @MittRomney’s strong pro-growth tax reform plan, very much like mine," Toomey tweeted.

Romney laid out a tax reform plan Wednesday that would cut income rates and aim to recover the lost revenue by limiting tax deductions and loopholes, which is similar to what Toomey proposed during the so-called "supercommittee" talks.

Before Romney even uttered Toomey's name on national television, he boasted the Cut, Cap and Balance plan that was widely embraced by Republicans during the debt ceiling fight last year. Most Republicans will say that the plan was modeled off of Toomey's budget, and Toomey was one of its most vocal and ardent supporters. Romney said that was the plan he would have backed.

Then Romney criticized Santorum's support of Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey in the 2004 Pennsylvania Senate Republican primary. He said Toomey's name three times, immediately adding it to the lexicon of the presidential race.

There's been some murmuring, especially in right-leaning blogs and articles, that Toomey would make the ideal number two for Romney. In the weekly conservative magazine, Human Events, a reporter listed Toomey as a possible contender saying he's "a darling of fiscal conservatives who articulately defends the free market system, also happens to be from a swing state."

Toomey has been demure on the topic refusing to say he's interested, but also never saying he isn't.